So you're a salesman persuading Mr Average to upgrade from, say, a Nikon Coolpix to a Nikon J1, what do you tell them? What do they get for the price of an expensive SLR?

Because they'll see through all the high-speed stuff as a gimmick they can already get on a £175 Casio.

So what else? Nice blurry backgrounds? That's why people buy SLRs isn't it? Isn't that the only difference Mr Average can discern between an SLR photograph and a cheap compact? Sorry, no blurry backgrounds.

So what else? A pocketful of expensive lenses just to get the same zoom range as a Nikon S9100 that slips in your pocket? Why?

These new Nikon cameras will no doubt be well built, reliable and take perfectly good photos. Like any decent compact these days. Perhaps even a little bit better, not that Mr Average will be able to tell the difference when he views the photos on his iPad.

To me, they don't offer anything extra over a decent compact, apart from expense (and future expense) to Mr Average.

I don't want Nikon to fail with this system, but if this was Dragon's Den, I know what I'd be saying.